Cuba

I feel it is important to present my comments on The Times' reports regarding Cuba. It is true that Cuba is having difficulties in its manner of life, but to imply it is as tragic as your reporters write is simply not true. The tragic aspect to me is that my government is included in trying to destroy its government in line with what former director of the CIA Allen Dulles declared 30 years ago, namely: "We will do everything in our power to destroy Castro and the revolution." I have just returned from two weeks in Cuba as a reporter for a religious publication.

The recent pieces by Gillian Gunn Clissold (Commentary, Jan. 8) and Wayne Smith (Opinion, Jan. 10) accurately portray the halfhearted new policy initiative on Cuba by the Clinton administration. Our relief agency is fully licensed by the U.S. government to provide medical aid to Cuba. What the new policy fails to do is allow us any better means of providing that aid. On Jan. 8, we were forced to send lifesaving medications to a pediatric hospital in Havana by buying a full-fare airline ticket through Mexico to Havana and having a staff person hand-carry an ice chest with the medicines.

Recently, I attended a seminar on Cuba today. Reading Shireen Hunter's analysis of contemporary Iran ("Don't Expect Things to Change Overnight," Commentary, Feb. 14) gave me a shock of recognition. Both Cuba and Iran have population majorities born since their respective revolutions. Those young people are largely uninterested in the ideals that drove the revolutions; they have been attracted to a transnational material culture inescapable in a media-saturated world. Old revolutionaries, of all people, should know that you can't freeze time or stop history by fiat--but somehow, they never seem to learn.

In response to Alexander Cockburn's Column Left of Oct. 6, regarding our embargo against Cuba: I wonder if Cockburn was as consistent in denouncing our boycott against South Africa in the '80s. And as for his gushing praise of the Cuban health care system, all I can say is "so what?" Since when does that excuse totalitarian and oppressive government? Rather than rail against the U.S. embargo and cry crocodile tears for the poor, deprived citizens (maybe that should be "subjects"?

Globus has joined the ranks of well-known tour companies offering trips to Cuba under a special U.S. Treasury Department license that permits people-to-people educational exchanges on the Communist island. Its nine-day “ Undiscovered Cuba ” itinerary, based in Havana, includes a city tour led by a local architect; meetings with musicians and university students and local car club members; dinner at a family-owned paladar (privately owned restaurant), with a discussion of the free-enterprise system; a visit with a tobacco farmer and his family; and an excursion to the home of late novelist Ernest Hemingway . Beach time is not on the agenda.

Most Americans would at least consider visiting Cuba if all travel restrictions were lifted, according to an informal survey by Travel Leaders , a Minneapolis-based network of travel agencies. While not scientific, the survey of nearly 1,000 Americans adds fuel to the debate over travel to the Communist-ruled island. The results were released Tuesday, just days after the U.S. Treasury Department issued new guidelines to implement loosened restrictions on travel to Cuba that President Obama announced in January.

MOSCOW - A plane from Hong Kong believed to be carrying the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden landed in the Russian capital late Sunday afternoon, and authorities said he was en route to Cuba. There were conflicting reports about what precisely happened to Snowden, who is wanted by U.S. authorities for leaking top-secret NSA information, once the flight landed at Sheremetyevo-2 Airport. He was not seen among the flight passengers emerging from passport control and customs.

Russ Fega captured this photo of an eatery near the National Capitol Building in Havana, which he visited in February. "What drew me to this, initially, were the faded colors, the flooring and the sense of everyday life that emanated from within," Fega said. "The man selling apples out front was a bonus!" The Altadena resident used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.